Tomato Goodness

The tomatoes are in full fruiting right now and the backyard smells amazing, the combination of buttery tomato smell combined with the fresh basil, rosemary, peppers and catnip along with the jasmine. Quite an interesting group of smells to explore.

The tomatoes have been excellent, an incredible taste treat to pick a tomato, clean it, slice it up and eat it within ten minutes of picking.

And I've been trying new things with them. Easy tomato based salads that take a couple of minutes to make and taste excellent. By letting the basil infuse into some olive oil before adding the tomatoes the flavors get more thoroughly dispersed. Marinades and sauces are easy to put together. Olive Oil, some garlic, fresh basil (usually a combination of kinds, cinnamon, fresh sweet and purple ruffles), a shot of balsamic vinegar and then a dash of Worchestire Sauce for the smoky undertones. Let it all sit together for a few minutes to allow the flavors to say hi to each other. Then hit it up with some appropriate cheese, pecorino works well because of its ability to stand up to other strong flavors but cheddar is nice too, as is mozzerella. Go with whatever you want to.

There are the three holy flavors of the summer season in my book, maybe four. Fresh tomatoes (not pronounced in the hoity toity tom-ah-toes way but the lower key and more accepted to-may-toes), fresh basil, fresh mozzerella and then maybe some fresh garlic if its going to stand for any length of time. But a favorite plate is to assemble the parts, not chopped into small parts but left with good sized wedges and larger portions of cheese. Drizzled with some high quality olive oil and then sprinkled with some finely chopped basil it is an excellent snack to make and can be as beautiful as it is tasty when prepared well.

On a side note, I just had some peas, green onions and peanuts in a salad together with a light cream dressing. Very tasty and crunchy and a really nice little salad that I'd like to try and recreate myself sometime.